“I’m done!” Morgan spat. “I tried, Mom.”
Morgan turned and marched toward the front door,Rianright behind her like a fucking lovesick puppy. But before she could stomp out of my life for good, Venom and Krypto stepped in front of the door.
Morgan crossed her arms over her chest and said, “Do you think you scare me? I assume you know who my father is?” She peered at me over her shoulder. “Who mybrotheris?”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
She turned back to Krypto. “Then move.”
“Can’t do that, Ma’am,” Venom said, his eyes filled with apology.
What the actual fuck?!
“Let her go,” I ordered.
“Don’t either of you fucking move,” Smokey said from the bar.
“What the fuck, Smoke?!” I looked around the room. “You all voted. You all practically begged on your fucking knees for me to be your president and you don’t listen for shit. You didn’t have my fucking back when O’Malley clocked me, and now you want the woman who fucking cheated on me to stay? Fuck this!”
“WHAT?!” Morgan yelled from across the room. “My father was here?” She turned her anger on Rian. “Did you know?” The man had the sense to look ashamed when he nodded.
She closed her eyes, and I knew that look. The one that said she couldn’t take anymore.
“I can’t do this anymore.” She looked at her mother. “I can’t. It’s too fucking much.”
“I’ll call him,” Bernadette offered.
“No.” She looked at me. “You really want to do this here? In front of everyone?”
“Why the fuck not?” I asked, throwing my hands out.
“Fine.” She marched over and stood in front of me. “I didn’t fucking cheat on you.” She dug her finger into my chest as she said it. “You were dead. DEAD!” she shouted. “As in never coming back. You have no idea what I went through.”
She took a deep breath, and I was second-guessing my decision to air this out in front of my men. “Let’s talk in church,” I said as I reached for her.
“No. You wanted to do this here; we’ll do this here.” She smiled at me, and I cringed inside. I was a fucking dead man. “It was two years after you died. I was with one person a handful of times because I was trying to make myself feel something other than pain and grief. But it didn’t fucking work. So I haven’t been with anyone else but you! This baby is yours.”
I knew what she was saying was true. I could see it in her eyes, but instead of asking the question of how, I doubled down and made it worse.
“Eleven weeks ago, I was in Nebraska, saving your brother’s fucking life. So explain to me how I fucking got you pregnant from hundreds of miles away.”
“Pregnancy starts on the day of my last period. Not the day of conception. Didn’t you pay attention in health class?” She leaned her head to the side and smiled. “Or did they not have health class when you were a kid?”
“Morgan,” I warned.
“I haven’t been with anyone since Gunner. Years, Jude. I wasn’t on birth control because I wasn’t fucking anyone. And you didn’t use a fucking condom.”
I stared at her. Her words didn’t make sense. But hearing her talk about Gunner, the Sons of Hell VP, had a cloud of ragehovering over my head, making it impossible to comprehend anything.
“What the fuck are you saying?”
She let out a tired sigh. “I’m saying the baby is only nine weeks old. They add the two weeks before you get pregnant to the pregnancy. Why, I have no idea.”
“Nine weeks?” I whispered, looking down at her.
“Almost out of the first trimester,” she said quietly. She dug into her purse and pulled out a picture. She stared at it for a moment, then thrust it at me. “Here.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
